Chaos Rings drew accolades when it was released in 2010 for bringing a console-style 3D RPG experience to iOS, and merited a prequel and a sequel on the platform since then. The Android version was launched on Google Play on October 10, though the notice about incompatibility with rooted phones apparently didn't go up until shortly after the game was first made available. Google Play statistics show that between 500 and 1,000 people have downloaded the $13 game since it was released.

We presumed that Square Enix's restrictions on Chaos Rings were motivated by similarly misguided DRM concerns (though Android game piracy is rampant, pirating a game is just as easy on an unrooted Android device). But when we reached out to the company for comment, its response mainly left us with more questions:

We are aware of the issue affecting Android users who attempt to download Chaos Rings with rooted devices. We are currently working towards applying an update that will grant those players access to the game and we expect this update to go live sometime next week. We thank the Android community for its patience and continued support as we continue to bring great mobile games to the Android platform.

Referring to the rooted device block as an "issue" to be fixed (rather than as a decision to be reversed) suggests this is a technical compatibility error with rooted phones, and not a deliberate attempt to block rooted Android users from buying the game. But according to a post on the XDA developers forums, the game performs a launch-time check for a folder containing the SuperUser root app, and force quits if it's found. This suggests that the developers were intentionally trying to block rooted Android users from being able to play the game.

Square Enix wasn't immediately able to clarify its position on this score, so we can't be sure if next week's patch was already planned before angry consumers started loading the game's Google Play page with one-star reviews. "This is incredibly short-sighted and small-minded of this developer [who] has the audacity to SPIT IN THE FACE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS," reviewer Rauel wrote. "That has to be the most ridiculous anti-piracy measure ever," added reviewer cgrayson. "Now you've cut out 20 percent of your target market, people like me who would have gladly paid $13 for the game, and now if I want to play Chaos Rings, I have no choice but to download a pirated version. Way to go, refund for me."

Cgrayson isn't quite right about having no choice but to download a pirated version, apparently, since rooted users can currently bypass Chaos Rings' check simply by changing the name of their root file. But if this was an effort to block potential pirates, it seems it wasn't only misguided, but also incredibly ineffective (not to mention moot, once the patch hits next week).

We're still looking into what this somewhat baffling decision means for the Android app environment from both a consumer and a developer standpoint, but suffice it to say that it seems incompatible with a platform that is sold on openness and accessibility.

With additional reporting from Florence Ion.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

Seriously, this is rediculous. It was either a coding mistake, or some suit higher up equated "rooting" with "jailbreaking" on IOS (the only way to install pirate apps). I do NOT Have a rooted phone (it will not connect via usb except to charge) and I can install non-market apps all day long which would included pirated apps if i so chose.

Let me guess: Squenix wants to show shareholders that it is serious about piracy on Android and is "doing something" about the problem. The fact that this action is ineffective is completely lost on the analysts that will be reporting on the issue.

I'm not up in arms about this, as it is ultimately their decision on what devices they would like to support but I will say this: if a user is running a rooted device, they are more than likely going to be more technically savvy than the average user. Given this information, these are the users that are most able to pirate any apps they want so why you would ever restrict them from legitimately buying your product is beyond me.

I'd go a step further to bet any cracked version is going to have these restrictions removed entirely, even if the fix in this case is as simple as renaming the superuser app.

One piece of information that would be interesting for this article is "who exactly did the port?" Square Enix, as the publisher/rights holder is of course ultimately responsible, and it's rightfully their reputation that will take the beating. It's fairly common though to farm out ports to 3rd party specialists rather then trying to handle it internally, particularly if no simultaneous release is desired. There have been plenty of instances, stretching back a long time, of conflicts caused by the potentially dubious actions of contractors (the San Francisco Canyon Company being an infamous example). If it was a 3rd party though and SE management wasn't actually doing any testing or paying much attention beyond "Android app delivered on budget and runs on some dude's phone" then it'd explain the use of "issue" and why they'd actually be surprised. It really could have not have been intended, but just added in.

Although that said it could just as easily be an internal fuckup or plain stupidity. They'd hardly be the first dev to attempt to apply some DRM snake oil. I guess I'd give them a small amount of credit in that case for at least backtracking immediately, although not much.

They should also check out how much of the launcher's background is teal-colored, to make sure the device isn't running some sort of devil's "Cyanogen-mod". Perhaps the Prince of Lies and General Misrepresentations About DPI will come up with a few more setting checkmarks to hide sudo from general file APIs. CM can also return more yellow and dark blue pixels to apps making screencap calls, too.

They sell it for $13 when it's a port of an RPG game destined for touch and they restrict to non-rooted devices. I take it they don't want the game to be all too popular. I will definitely look else where. Also, talking about rooting devices shouldn't be on par with hacker-minds. It's just making full usage of what you rightfully bought. Don't need to be a hacker to do any of that as the developers are nice enough to want to share their work with everyone in the easiest fashion as possible.

Does changing the name of the Superuser app folder break the app, or make it harder for other apps to request permissions?

According to the article, changing the name of the superuser folder actually bypasses the security check and allows the game to run as if your device was not rooted. Thats why people are saying this form of DRM is useless, while at the same time, pissing off customers.

While I fully support people being able to use their devices however they please, including having root access, ironically, since getting the Galaxy Nexus, the phone people seem to love rooting and flashing ROMs on the most, I have felt zero need to even look into how to root it, since it gets updates from Google and does everything I want without root. Even CyanogenMod nowadays comes with root disabled by default, so you only need it temporarily to actually flash it in the first place, then you can go back without it. The main other reason I see people cite for having root access is to use Titanium Backup, but I haven't felt any need to mess with that either since I'm not wiping data all the time for ROMs.

Does changing the name of the Superuser app folder break the app, or make it harder for other apps to request permissions?

According to the article, changing the name of the superuser folder actually bypasses the security check and allows the game to run as if your device was not rooted. Thats why people are saying this form of DRM is useless, while at the same time, pissing off customers.

Presumably this means that using another SuperUser app, such as SuperSu, would also get around this. Given that SuperSu comes by default in AOKP (at least the JB build 3 and onward), the "measure" Square Enix took was pretty useless...

Mod edit: Have a little common sense and don't quote spammers, including their links please.

Why is it that there doesnt appear to be a report button unless you in the forums?

EDIT: Ok wtf, this happened to me TWICE yesterday and now again today. When you hitthe "report" button to report obvious spam posts like this, it comes up with a mesage saying the post does not exist. But, its right there, still in the comments and on the forums. Ars, WTF?

I would love to see and (@Kyle Orland Feel free to take this idea and run with it) how much square enix spends on developing DRM for a game that they sell for $13 and only sell 500-1300($6500-16900 before Play stores cut ) copies of? Hell for any of their games because I'm sure the PC DRM is a bit more complex. I want to buy their games on my Nexus 7 but don't want the frustration of not being able to if i don't have a wifi connection available. I'm certain that if they didn't have their ridiculous DRM their sales would double.

Why is it that there doesnt appear to be a report button unless you in the forums?

EDIT: Ok wtf, this happened to me TWICE yesterday and now again today. When you hitthe "report" button to report obvious spam posts like this, it comes up with a mesage saying the post does not exist. But, its right there, still in the comments and on the forums. Ars, WTF?

Way to make sure that spam sticks around once it gets noticed by a moderator. If you are going to quote spam, at least remove the links so that the spammers get no benefit.

It strikes me as odd that some people would like to characterize this as a possible oversight, a feature that was to be removed before release. What I don't understand is why a proactive check for a very specific rooting method would exist in the first place.

Just to play devil's advocate: it's possible that Square-Enix actually did discover a technical incompatibility with rooted phones and they're working to fix it, but in the meantime, they're using the check for the SuperUser app as a proxy for rooted phones and force closing to avoid hangs or other messy behavior. Just because they're force-closing based on this app being installed doesn't automatically make them anti-rooting. I don't know how likely this explanation is, but it's at least possible.

Why is it that there doesnt appear to be a report button unless you in the forums?

Maybe edit your post so it doesn't include the whole spam?

Quote:

EDIT: Ok wtf, this happened to me TWICE yesterday and now again today. When you hitthe "report" button to report obvious spam posts like this, it comes up with a mesage saying the post does not exist. But, its right there, still in the comments and on the forums. Ars, WTF?

I've never seen that 'report' button work. Get the unique URL for the post or user and use the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the page. It's annoying, but generally effective. The only copy of that spam post is now your quote.

Mind you, FF3 has between 100,000 - 500,000 downloads. I'd contend that the DRM didn't cost them 20% of their sales. DRM spurred a bunch of 1 star reviews and may have permanently tanked sales for this app.

And frankly, trying to sell a mobile game for $13 is a bit crazy. Developers deserve to get paid, but I'd wager than if they sold the app for $5 (roughly a third of the price), sales would more than triple.

Edit: I just noted that FF3 sold all those copies despite a $16 price tag. I am curious how much money they could make at a lower price, but it just goes to show that price isn't the reason they haven't topped 1,000 sales. It is the DRM.

So, why u mad? People like to say they bought a phone and can do whatever they want with it, like root. Publishers and developers are making their own product and can do whatever they want with it. You can respond by not buying instead of destructive criticism.

What a bunch or morons. Pirating is trivially easy on mobile devices, this move is beyong useless. Square is starting to seriously annoy me. I payed the full $16 on FF3 and do not regret it one bit, and IIRC it worked fine without data connectivity most of the times. But already the regional pricing for FF1 (it costs $10.21 here) made me decide not to buy it until it goes down in price. And now this? Idiots, the lot of them.

Does this game require a network connection during the entire play time like the other Android Final Fantasy titles do?

I briefly considered buying FF3 on the play store until I started reading reviews about the game ceasing to work if data connection is lost.

Makes it quite a bit less appealing, if that's the case, and my phone isn't even rooted.

This is not true, mate. I have FF3 on my Note and it does not need connection to play. It does connect if it can when you boot up but if there is no connection it will just boot up without it. I regularly boot it up on the Tube without any issues, not even a mention. I really heartily recommend you buy it if you like RPGs. It's the only cell phone game I have ever played that is worth the time to play it. I've tried loads and I just lose interest after a while because they're so half-baked. FF3 is a proper gamer's game. I paid full price for it and it was worth every penny. I'd do it again in a heart beat. About 15 hrs in and loving it. Will definitely check this new one out as well.

Skype and Amazon Prime (among others) try to pull this crap on jailbroken iOS devices, too. Fortunately, the solution is simple: install a package called xCon to make the device appear un-jailbroken to apps known to check for it. It sounds like it's time for an Android xCon-equivalent project. It's a shame some developers think of their users as adversaries.